<div>My understanding is that these are in/around the 2m band, not 70cm, so GMRS is a long way away. (Also, FYI, for GMRS under 5W, it&#39;s license-free, which makes it even more attractive. Better still: the FCC doesn&#39;t seem to actually care about the GMRS frequencies, probably because GMRS users are less likely to complain. They&#39;re random joes using cheap walkie-talkies, not anal-retentive nerds who spent a bunch of time and money on licenses and equipment like other bands.)</div>
<div><br></div><div>I&#39;ve got a disassembled unit here that I&#39;ll bring in tonight and leave in the box as a reference key to what chips live where. I was planning on taking photos of it before dropping it off, but that&#39;s been a month now, so I should just relinquish to someone who&#39;ll actually finish.</div>
<div>--</div><div>/jbm, KJ6ANM, planning to sit the general and extra in a couple weeks.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 2:04 PM, Jake <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:jake@spaz.org">jake@spaz.org</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Mike (effinnay at g mail) wrote:<br>
<br>
462 - 467 MHz or so is GMRS, anyone can get a license and do up to 50<br>
watts with any antenna.<br>
But HAM bands are much cooler!<div class="im"><br>
<br>
Josh wrote:<br>
<br>
Also, please don&#39;t use them unless you know what you&#39;re getting into. They operate on a small section of the amateur band (which requires a license), and a bigger chunk of the commercial band (probably don&#39;t need a license, but it&#39;s easy to accidentally interfere with others). The radios are from a jail, so they might also be programmed with police/emergency frequencies, which is incredibly uncool (and illegal) to use outside of an emergency.<br>

<br></div>
Jake wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
here&#39;s what I wrote to Dr. Jesus when he asked if they could be used on a<br>
ham band (the radios say 450-530 MHz on the sticker on the back):<br>
<br>
Ham band is 420-450 MHz unfortunately, so it&#39;s a question of whether the<br>
software will allow programming outside that range. Otherwise it would be<br>
necessary to hack the hardware somehow unless someone has documented a more<br>
elegant solution, but the days of EEPROM burning are over.<br>
<br>
I would be into dissecting the radio&#39;s internal layout so that an arduino<br>
could talk to the PLL directly, which would bypass all the programming and<br>
limitations, and allow for dynamic entering of frequency like a real ham<br>
radio. We could make 50 noisebridgers into hams! The analog section surely<br>
can reach down to 420 no problem.<br>
<br>
At that point we can use the arduino to actually modulate digital data and<br>
we can have Text Messaging!<br>
<br>
---<br>
<br>
and now i have found the following page, posted when Josh first brought them<br>
in:<div class="im"><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/cq/2010-December/000248.html" target="_blank">https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/cq/2010-December/000248.html</a><br>
<br></div>
see the link in the middle for the technical datasheets on the chips inside.<br>
Glad someone has already done the hard work of looking in.<br>
Unfortunately the PLL is not among the chips listed with datasheets.<br>
<br>
We will make hams out of everyone we know who wants in on it.<br>
<br>
-jake<br>
</blockquote>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Josh Myer 415.230.9791 &lt;-- NOTE: New number!<br> <a href="mailto:josh@joshisanerd.com" target="_blank">josh@joshisanerd.com</a><br>
</div>